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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25728982">the look of mischief in your eyes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa'>skatzaa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Childhood Friends to Enemies to Flirting Buddies, F/F, Reunions, Science Fiction, Space Pirates, Worldbuilding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:01:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,381</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25728982</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jex was not here to terrorize the various rulers, ambassadors, and other important dignitaries of the galaxy. Jex was here—because the ancient ‘faring laws required it of her—to pay her <i>respects.</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>God-Empress/Space Pirate Queen, Original Female Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Original Works Opportunity 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the look of mischief in your eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/jibber_jabber/gifts">jibber_jabber</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from Hozier's Dinner &amp; Diatribes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Metal crashed against metal, footsteps echoing through the vast space as Jex sauntered into the throne room, her first mate and chief navigator half a step behind and offset to either side. Their footsteps were mere whispers compared to her own, but all three preferred it that way. </p><p>The throne room was already fit to bursting, but at the sound of her approach the crowd turned to see what flanked them.</p><p>Jex spared the gathering a glance, but other than one or two faces she distantly recalled from past raids, they held little interest for her. The being closest to her actually flinched when Jex’s heel next hit the deck, and she filed it away for future reference. Her group may be unarmed, as law and custom dictated, but they were still dangerous, and her elaborate waistcoat and braids did nothing to conceal that fact. It was good to know that others recognized her, and that her... <em> reputation </em>preceded her.</p><p>She flashed a sharp, cutting smile at the being, and was gratified when they actually stuttered half a step backward, head tresses wavering in an undeniably fearful way.</p><p>In her peripheral vision, Kirsen twitched her chin up. A reprimand. Jex would, normally, be quite put out to be publicly chastised. But her first mate had a point, and it’s not as though anyone in the room would understand the rebuke to begin with.</p><p>Jex was not here to terrorize the various rulers, ambassadors, and other important dignitaries of the galaxy. Jex was here—because the ancient ‘faring laws required it of her—to pay her <em> respects. </em></p><p>She fixed her eyes on the front of the hall, her left eye ticking minutely as it refocused. It would need maintenance soon, if she wanted to keep the lag from getting her killed. </p><p>Seated on her throne, featureless faceplate a muted gray, the God-Empress awaited her. </p><p>Jex continued forward, clanking with each step, and the crowd parted before her as a nebula did before a sailboat. She did not waste a glance on any of them this time; she knew that Kirsen and Anderz would be her eyes and ears. </p><p>If they wanted to survive this <em> without </em>ending up in one of the blackhole prisons, Jex would have to keep her attention very carefully fixed on the Empress.</p><p>At last, they reached the foot of the dais, and the clangs faded away into nothing. Jex did not pull the hat from her head only because she was not wearing one, but she still swept an elaborately formal bow, her crew members following only a split second after, theirs rougher and less polished, better suited to the sailors they were. She made sure to flare her coattails out behind her, and to allow her jewelry to jangle lightly as she moved. It never hurt, to show that one was doing well. Even—<em> especially </em> for one in Jex’s line of work.</p><p>“Viis!” Jex boomed, voice carrying to every corner of the throne room. “It’s so good to see you again, old friend.”</p><p>Silence, as the assembled crowd stared, stunned, at her exposed back. Then: chaos.</p><p>Jex paid no mind to the angry accusations, the disbelieving outrage, or the petty squabbling that had erupted behind her. There weren’t any guards aiming energy pikes at their backs, and that was what mattered. She straightened from her bow and fixed her eyes exactly where Viis’s would be, were she not one of those Welded bastards now. Jex allowed her mouth to curl into a tiny smirk as she waited for the Empress to respond. </p><p>Ever so slowly, Viis inclined her head, and Jex could almost picture the answering smile, the way it would pull up just a little bit more on the right.</p><p>“It is good to see you in such fine spirits, Captain Jex,” the Empress said. The crowd subsided into silence once more, this time confused. </p><p>“Ah, but haven’t you heard?” Jex said, voice still carrying. “I killed King Zavyr in his sleep, and poisoned half the crew besides, because Zavyr would not marry me.”</p><p>Viis did not laugh, because that was not becoming for the Empress of all the known galaxy. Also, who knew if the Welded even <em> could </em> laugh? Jex certainly didn’t, and she wasn’t about to ask. But there was a pause where her laugh <em> would </em> be, and it echoed in Jex’s heart. Viis said, as regal as ever, “Queen Jex, then.” She paused, and Jex could nearly imagine the glint in her eye, a herald of oncoming disasters. “Though I heard you bested them all in unarmed combat after Zavyr insulted your hair.”</p><p>“Yes, that too.” She shrugged, a few braids sliding over one shoulder. “It’s so hard to keep up with my own accomplishments these days.” Jex motioned Anderz forward, and he proffered the box that had only been allowed through city-ship security after a very hefty bribe, and a very sincere promise that the contents would not harm the Empress. There were ritual words for this, ones that Jex only partially remembered. “I come bearing a gift, in honor of your ascendance to godhood. May the Queen Mother protect us, from the cosmos and by the cosmos.”</p><p>The queen mother being Viis, of course, but also <em> her </em> mother, Milaya, who had returned to stardust already. The real religious types said it was to strengthen the current Empress’s connection to the galaxy and her power to protect her people; Jex didn’t know if she believed in all that—she had, after all, seen Viis without both of her front teeth, and she knew very, <em> very </em> intimately what a dead body looked and smelled like—but Milaya had been kind to her, once. She deserved respect, at the very least.</p><p>The crowd’s murmurs began again. Jex hadn’t forgotten about them, but she <em> had </em>allowed them to fall to the very edge of her awareness, and it took effort not to startle now. Foolish, and dangerous. </p><p>Sentiment would kill her; at least, that’s what Viis had always said.</p><p>At Jex’s cue, Anderz raised the lid of the box. She watched as the Empress leaned forward ever so slightly to see into the box, and took supreme satisfaction at the way her entire being stilled, save for the faintest relaxing of her shoulders. Viis was Welded now, but Jex didn’t need to see her expression to read her like a holobook.</p><p>“Is this–?” Though it was unbecoming of an Empress, Viis did not finish her sentence, voice trailing off into nothing. </p><p>“An original prototype, straight from the workshop of Ser Ahlan,” Jex confirmed, never being one for protocol in the first place. Someone grumbled about <em> treason </em> and <em> interrupting the gods </em> off to her right. She stepped forward and took the box from Anderz, then waiting for permission to approach.</p><p>The Empress gave it with a shallow dip of her chin. </p><p>Jex’s prosthetic echoed against the stairs leading up to the dais, and she doesn’t let any of them see how it makes her hip twinge and ache to climb them.</p><p>When she was only a pace away from the throne, Jex knelt, box proffered so Viis could see its contents more clearly. She felt hypersensitive with her back exposed to a roomful of unknowns, her chin bowed subserviently, but she had to trust her crew to have her.</p><p>Ever so slowly, Viis reached out a hand to caress the model sailboat, perfectly proportioned and just as space ready as its full-sized cousins. They’d each had one, once upon a time, and had raced them along the exterior of the city-ship, running from porthole to porthole, trying to catch a glimpse of which ship was in the lead. </p><p>“Queen Jex,” the Empress said, and Jex tilted her chin up to stare at her blank faceplate. Fuck it; she missed Viis’s face, and her sharp, sparking eyes. “This is a fine gift, and you have my thanks.”</p><p>Jex set the box aside and creaked upright. She held out a hand, and received Viis’s hand, fingers long and slim against the rough calluses of Jex’s palm.</p><p>“Empress,” Jex said, and bowed to press a kiss to Viis’s knuckles, just above her heavy palladium rings. Viis’s fingers tightened on her hand for the briefest moment. “It was my pleasure.”</p>
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